BitFenix Hydra Pro Fan/LED Controller Review - PAGE 1

A few months ago I had the pleasure of reviewing Bitfenix's Recon. Today I will be taking a look at another one of their fan/LED controllers, the Hydra which has a total of 5 fan channels with a rating of 30 watts per channel, as well as 5 fan LED connectors. Instead of using a touchscreen as seen on the Recon, BitFenix utilized sliders for the actual fan control. Not as stylish, but touchscreens can become temperamental and may even burn out after a short period of time.

Fan controllers traditionally have been used by enthusiasts wanting more control over the cooling aspect of their systems. However, there seems to be an increasing number of mainstream users turning to fan controllers as they offer a higher degree of temperature control over the BIOS itself and are a little easier to configure than software solutions such as Speedfan.

The packaging for the Hydra uses the standard BitFenix color scheme of black and white, with a photo of the Hydra on the front of the box as well as BitFenix's logo. Flipping the box around you can find a list of the features.

Comments

Not a fan of how this looks. I know it is a very usable and very accurate fan controller thanks to the use of physical controls over touch screen, but when it comes to things like this I do sacrifice performance for looks. I have the NZXT Sentry 2 in my case and it's purely only there as a talking point and to look good. If I'm ever in the market for a functional fan controller I will be sure to get this one.

Might be because it looks completely out of place on that case. Alot of Bitfenix products are designed with their own cases in mind since all their cases use their SofTouch finish. It will look tons better on one of their own cases like a Shinobi or Survivor but will stick out like a sore thumb on other cases.

I have a Hydra Pro in my water-cooled Switch 810 (white). I am absolutely 100 percent pleased with the unit, and I have a good number of fan controllers including the Lamptron FC2, FC5-v2, FC-Touch, and FC-9, the Sunbeam RheoSmart6, all of NZXT's models, the G-VANS 100W/ch model, and others (including some of those "AeroCool Touch" garbage). I was looking for something that was not flashy, and also highly functional. I will be putting 4 of the BitFenix Spectre Pro PWM 140mm 122cfm fans in my case to replace the stock NZXT RF-FN140RB 140mm 62cfm fans, as the rad fans consume a TON of air. Thus, the ability to control the LEDs is a huge bonus.

First, if you have an NZXT Switch 810, this is literally the absolute best fan controller in terms of aesthetically matching it to the case; the SofTouch finish is a 99.9% match to the black "rubberized/plasticized" trim on the case, so it looks absolutely stunning in its subtlety.

Also, the 30W/ch is, if anything, a conservative estimate. While I don't recommend surpassing that amount per channel, I did just to test the unit, and I was able to chain 21 Yate Loon DH120SM fans together on a single channel and the unit could power them all without issue. The power regulators on the controller's PCB barely even got warm. I also tried daisy-chaining the following sets of fans, but not all at once (so I only loaded one channel at a time, and for example the "- 5x San Ace.... *space*" was tested separately from the next line of fans), and obtained min/max speeds (slider at top for max, bottom for min), the total electrical load on the channel, the Voltage Max/Min of each, and the temperature of the PCB MOSFETs (via laser-assisted infrared thermometer) both at min and max speeds... - 4x Delta 120x38 4400rpm 191cfm fans (2071/4539rpm - 49.7W - 5.45/12.8V - 39.1C)- 5x Sanyo Denkei San-Ace 120x38 3800rpm 140cfm fans (1492/3912rpm - 47.3W - 5.35/12.8V - 37.3C) - 6x Bgears Blasters 140x25 1800rpm 103cfm fans (972/2032rpm - 21.8W - 5.21/12.8V - 32.5C)- 6x Koolance 120x38 2800rpm 118cfm fans (1480/2972rpm - 27.3W - 5.09/12.8V - 34.2C)- 19x Scythe GT AP15's 1850rpm 56cfm fans (962/1930rpm - 54W - 5.23/12.4V - 42.8C)- 25x Yate Loon DH120SM 120x25 fans (no RPM data - 43.1W - 5.47/13.3V - 39.5C) - 3x Koolance 120x38 4000rpm 180cfm 2A/each Fans (1938/4109rpm - 61.74W - 5.11/12.4V - 44.9C)

Those results should giveyyou a very good idea of what this is capable of, and all those were done with just one channel per test, so you could theoretically increase the number of fans anywhere from more than 7x the amount to maybe 3x with some of the really High-Amperage Delta/Koolance/SanAce and similar fans. Still, going 50 percent beyond its rated range, and not exceeding 45C? That's amazing!

This fan controller is not fancy, has no touchscreen (a good thing to me, as I don't want to have to be in just the right place to see the info), and is inexpensive. However, this is a true rival to the likes of Lamptron's FC-9 or other similar controllers 3x the price. It works, and it's built so well that I simply couldn't overload it under a single remotely realistic condition. Plus, it will allow full control over LEDs!